The Political Whore

Creative Loafing laid off an assistant circulation director and gave two weeks’ notice to 18 independent contractor who deliver print copies of our weekly after signing a deal to have the St. Petersburg Times distribute the paper instead.

Publisher Sharry Smith informed staff this afternoon in an e-mail that read, in part:

We were recently approached by the St. Petersburg Times to open discussions about contracting with their distribution infrastructure to distribute CL.

After many conversations and very careful deliberation we have signed a distribution agreement with the St. Petersburg Times which will begin with the July 30 issue.

This agreement will affect our distribution expenses in a very positive way ….

Smith said the agreement provided both companies protections in terms of confidential information and would not be a problem despite the Times‘ distribution of what some view as a rival publication, the daily *tbt tabloid.

Smith would not reveal the financial terms of the distribution agreement.

My story in the print edition of CL this week details the personnel changes and newsroom reconfigurations going on at the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times. It focuses on intern Jessie DaSilva, who blogged about Coats newsroom explanation of how she hopes to combat the tough times that led her to lay off 11 editorial staffers two weeks ago. The full story is here.

Bonus cut: DaSilva would agree only to an e-mail interview, and here is her entire exchange with me about the reaction to her blog, which supported Coats’ plan and was seen by some as either naive or uncaring about the reporters who lost their jobs. My questions were, Did you have any hesitation about posting your thoughts on the layoffs and realignments?
Any regrets?
Has management at the paper had any reaction to your blog? In the past, I know from some reporters they have told folks not to discuss newspaper business in personal blogs.
What is your reaction to all the comments and reaction your post attracted?
Are you the incoming Alligator editor? If so, what lessons do you take back to that paper from this realignment?

And DaSilva’s e-mail back to me: Read the rest of this entry »

I am completely digging on the story in this morning’s Tribune about Karen Peoples, the Tampa Housing Authority board member who can’t seem to follow the rules of her own agency. This from John Allman’s tale:

Tampa Housing Authority commissioner Karen Peoples responded angrily this morning to a Tampa Tribune report that she is being evicted for violating federal housing guidelines.

“Whoever was responsible for this article, may God be with you when the time comes,” Peoples said near the end of the authority’s monthly board meeting. “This was not necessary.”

The authority this week began eviction proceedings against Peoples, who has been in violation since November 2007 of federal Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines that dictate the apartment size a resident can occupy.

Peoples is a single woman living in a four-bedroom apartment at C. Blythe Andrews, a north Tampa housing property. She has refused three offers to move to a one-bedroom apartment since January. The authority has more than 200 people waiting for a four-bedroom apartment at her complex, and authority President Jerome Ryans said Peoples has run out of chances.

Reading the story, however, raises an even more important question than who the hell appointed this broad to the board and when are they going to kick her off of it: namely, why doesn’t tbo.com provide ANY hyperlinks in its news stories, even to its own coverage? Why do I have to take 20 minutes searching through the rest of the site to find the initial story that Peoples was bitching about??

Democratic contender Bill Mitchell, a Tampa lawyer running for the Congress in FL-9, picked up an elected official’s endorsement today. From his news release:

Tampa, FL (July 16, 2008) – Oldsmar City Council Member Greg Rublee has endorsed Bill Mitchell for Congress in District 9. Greg was a candidate for Congress in District 9 in 2006. In his endorsement, Greg Rublee declared  ”Bill Mitchell is an agent of change who clearly states what he will do to restore quality of life for working families and retirees in our region.  Bill Mitchell is a sensible moderate who stands head and shoulders above his opponents and deserves our support.”

“I am truly honored to be endorsed by Greg Rublee,” Mitchell said. “ In addition to being an elected official Greg Rublee has held administrative positions in both the US Coast Guard and Defense Intelligence Agency.” Bill hopes to utilize the strengths that he and Greg bring to help the district on issues of importance such as the economy, health care, the War in Iraq and Social Security.

Bonus cut: My CL story about this primary race.

From the folks at the local O-Train comes this political-music event:

A Night of Blues for Barack!!

Featuring music by
The Walker Smith Group

Please join Generation Obama – Pinellas at The Kizmet to support Senator Barack Obama!

Date: Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Time: 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: The Kizmet
1101 1st Avenue North
Downtown St. Petersburg, FL
Donation: $25.00 minimum suggested

Donate at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/44h5l and print receipt for quickest entrance or you can RSVP to: Dawn Hunter at pinellas4obama@gmail.com or 813-610-9517 or Nick Denmon at Flabros3@hotmail.com

Generation Obama – Pinellas: Partner
Organization: Tampa Bay O-Train
Johnny Bardine, Dawn M. Hunter, and Nick Denmon

*Voter registration forms will be available.
*Contributions to Obama for America are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.

Impressive video of the Ron Paul Revolution March in Washington D.C. on July 12. I’m wondering about that chant, though. “Ron Paul! Freedom! Ron Paul! Freedom!” Is this supposed to mean something?

• Choice quotes from the presidential candidates yesterday (I’ll let you figure out who’s who):

“This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century. By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe.”

“With the right strategy and the right forces, we can succeed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I know how to win wars. And if I’m elected President, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory.”

• CBS runs a Romney as McCain V.P.?  story and Drudge links it and gives it top placement. Does that mean the fix in for Mitt?
• Obama and the racial divide.
• While NASA preps the Ares rocket to carry astronauts back to the moon, some of the engineers have been busy designing a cheaper, better alternative that the higher-ups won’t consider.
• Hillsborough students lose their phone privileges.
• Tampa’s cops might want to consider moving a bit close to the precinct.
• The all-star game that would not die.
• You might want to hold off on that HDTV purchase: Prices are set to decline by up to $400.
• I’ll take two boxes of the ACME Dehydrated Boulders, please.

The Colbert Report issued the challenge and the blogosphere stepped up: Make John McCain exciting using green screen technology and any of a number of movies/games/TV shows. Here is one of the funniest:

Hanging for part of the morning at Cafe Hey, a coffee shop and lunch spot co-owned by cool urban advocate Anne Vela. She was among those good folks fighting for the future of Kiley Park on the waterfront, a masterwork of landscape design that has been neglected and slaughtered over the past decade by government indifference.

Cafe Hey is at 1540 N. Franklin Street, just north of the I-275 overpass.
View Larger Map

Come by if you are in the neighborhood and talk politics.

The latest non-issue issue in the 2008 presidential campaign is blazing its way all over the 24-hour news channels and talk radio. It’s the highly irreverent satire on the New Yorker this week depicting Obama as a turban-wearing Muslim, fist-bumping his ’60s radical, rifle-totin’ wife, Michelle, while burning a U.S. flag.

It is genius.

The cover is coming under a mountain of criticism, a lot of it from the campaign itself, and most of those critics say it is irresponsible and only perpetuates the crazy rumor mill that has Obama as a Muslim, as having taken the oath of office on a Quran, as having attended an Islamic School, as having tried to change his middle name, and so forth and so forth. (All untrue, for those living under a rock for the past year. All of the Islam-related rumors regarding Obama have been thoroughly debunked time and time again.)

But the frustration is understandable. A colleague sent me a picture of a T-shirt he said was sold at a recent GOP event in Texas. “I know I shouldn’t take this shit personally,” he wrote me, “but DAMN… it pissed me off.”

Here it is:

The New Yorker cover is titled “The Politics of Fear” and it makes an important point about the postmodern United States, which has fallen so far into near-fascism that a significant majority of the public are very willing to believe anything scary about a public official. The cover is not going to convince any one who doesn’t bow to such fear that Obama is a Muslim; conversely, the folks who believe he is an Al-Qaeda mole won’t be unconvinced of it by the New Yorker, either. As a cartoon, the cover doesn’t quite work. As a devastating indictment of the level of unreasoned fear in our nation, it succeeds.

My hope is that the cover begins a serious discussion about the biggest problem our nation faces, and it ain’t oil prices or health care costs or whether to drill off the coast of Florida. It is fear. Because as our nation’s most physically challenged president told us in his first inaugural address, “… Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

John McCain gets a little assist from the good folks at Video Professor. I wonder if he used any of his wife’s windfall profits from the Anheuser-Bush sale to pay the shipping and handling charges?

• IndyMac customers party like it’s the Great Depression.
• Caliente Resort proves too hot for the American Association for Nude Recreation.
• The government’s terrorist watch list adds its one-millionth name.
• Starbucks announces its first 50 store closings. No Florida stores are on the list — yet.
• I know it’s called the “Home Run Derby,” but that was ridiculous, John Josh Hamilton.
• $10 million for the first Pitt-Jolie baby pictures? How much does that make the kid worth?
• Apple sells one million iPhone 3Gs in 72 hours.
• Splitsville: Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman.

Pinellas County Commission candidate Darden Rice has hired former Howard Dean and Alex Sink Internet guru Larry Biddle to help with social networking for the primary, the St. Petersburg Times is reporting. Here’s my 2007 story on Biddle’s accomplishments and experiences in helping transform politics via online networking.

Biddle, owner of PlanningWorks in St. Petersburg, was a pioneer in online fundraising in the Dean presidential campaign in 2004. (Full disclosure: He is the domestic partner of CL Editor David Warner.)

Rice faces a Democratic Primary against former St. Pete Councilwoman Rene Flowers. The winner will face social conservative School Board Member Nancy Bostock, a Republican.

(h/t to Pushing Rope)

The St. Pete Democratic Club has taken another step toward partisanizing the already secretly partisan School Board races by inviting only Democratic candidates to an upcoming meeting. This e-mail came across the PoHowire this morning from the Club:

The St. Petersburg Democratic Club announced today that they will host all candidates for the Pinellas County School Board, who are registered Democrats, at their monthly meeting on Wednesday August 6th. at the Piccadilly Cafeteria, 1900 34th. St. North in St. Petersburg at 6:30 p.m.  In addition, the Club will be saluting the Pinellas County Delegates to the Democratic National Convention.  Pinellas County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Toni Molinaro will also be on hand to present a State Democratic Party Charter to the Club.

“Although the candidates for the School Board are listed on the ballot as non-partisan we have found that in recent years the party opposite (G.O.P.) have invested a great deal of time and money in getting their candidates elected in an attempt to inject their right-wing values into the school system,” according to the club president, Jim Donelon. “For too long we Democrats have allowed our candidates to play second fiddle to other races on the ballot,” Donelon asserted, “but the time has come to place greater emphasis on these very important positions.”

“Every child,regardless of race, gender or economic status deserves the best quality education we can deliver and the candidates who are Democrats are committed to doing so,” he stated.

The secretary of the club, Karen Hodgen, conceived of the idea for the “EDUCATION NIGHT” and has also invited current School Board members Linda Lerner and Mary Brown to participate.

The club is the fastest growing Democratic Club on the west coast of Florida and includes among its membership former and present members of the St. Petersburg City Council, former and present leaders of the Pinellas Democratic Executive Committee and a broad cross section of Democrats from throughout Pinellas County.

Membership in the Club is not required to attend although membership applications will be available.

More than two decades after first taking a whack at Florida, Time is again smacking our Sunshiney butts. This week’s issue revisits its 1981 “Paradise Lost?” cover (shown here from today’s Miami Herald article on the update).

From Time’s missive, about Florida having mild winters, but:

Otherwise, there’s trouble in paradise. We’re facing our worst real estate meltdown since the Depression. We’ve got a water crisis, insurance crisis, environmental crisis and budget crisis to go with our housing crisis. We’re first in the nation in mortgage fraud, second in foreclosures, last in high school graduation rates. Our consumer confidence just hit an all-time low, and our icons are in trouble–the citrus industry, battered by freezes and diseases; the Florida panther, displaced by highways and driveways; the space shuttle, approaching its final countdown. New research suggests that the Everglades is collapsing, that our barrier beaches could be under water within decades, that a major hurricane could cost us $150 billion.

The article then goes on to detail many of the same woes that I addressed in my Fix It Now special reports. Nice to know we can agree on the problems; the solutions are another matter. The political will to implement those solutions? Nowhere on the horizon.

When it comes to holding back billions and billions of gallons of water in eastern Hillsborough, size does matter, our Fix It Now correspondent Kelly Cornelius reports in her latest blog post.

The Times‘ Bill Varian reports that the County Mayor movement is picking up some names:

Critics of a proposal to create a Hillsborough County mayor have dismissed its backers as a bunch of has-been politicians led by disgruntled lawyer Mary Ann Stiles.

That criticism is getting harder to back up.

After a slow start, Stiles has formed a pair of committees that, combined, now number 45 members. The groups include a cross section of civic leaders, activists and average citizens, and they may be showing up at a community meeting near you.

Although it is an interesting list, it isn’t a drop-dead group, either, as Varian points out:

It’s not an A-list of Hillsborough County power brokers. But it’s not a group that can be easily dismissed any longer either.

There are diehard Republicans, yellow-dog Democrats and a few independents backing the proposal to create an elected, nonpartisan county mayor. There are lawyers and marketing people, bankers and doctors, hailing from Lutz, Brandon and Hyde Park.

Let’s be honest, the names Les and Gwen Miller aren’t exactly a guarantee of a win.

According to the PAC’s website, its executive committee includes a veritable B-list (with a sprinkling of A-list’ers or at least former A-list’ers, of local politicos: Read the rest of this entry »

A friend tipped me to the blog of Former state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, a Plant City Republican, this morning. Johnnie Byrd Weekend is part of his Saturday radio talk show, on WGUL-AM 860 at 11 each weekend. I haven’t heard the show, so I can’t give you a review at this time. (As many no doubt recall, I worked as political consultant for Byrd in his state House and U.S. Senate campaigns.)

The blog has posts criticizing those who believe in climate change and blaming the oil crisis on the Democrats. Here’s a sample:

The July 11, 2008, Tampa Tribune editorial entitled “Floridians Should Not Be Panicked Into Sacrificing Their Coast” shows the Tribune’s true elitist, anti-fossil fuel, ‘protect Cathy Castor at all costs’ colors. They throw every baseless argument, and several ‘pants on fire’ falsehoods, into their anti-drilling rant. In essence, the Tribune is firmly behind the Nancy Pelosi mantra that, “We can’t drill our way out of the problem.” - whatever that means.

Thank goodness, two out of three Floridians know better.

The editorial rant basically repeats a recent speech on the floor of the U.S. House by Rep. Castor where she parroted the hard left fantasy that Katrina was an offshore oil spill of biblical proportions.

As USA Today debates drilling for oil off the coast, CNBC braces for $150-a-barrel oil this week. Hang on for the part where interviewee and “preeminent energy investment bankers” Matt Simmons mentions “the American nightmare.”

• The Feds move to rescue Fannie and Freddie.
• The July 21st edition of The New Yorker is sure to turn some heads.
• Bombs away?
• In the wake of IndyMac biting it, you might be wondering how many banks will fail before the economy rebounds? You don’t want to know …
• McCain in the NY Times: “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption.”
• Anheuser-Busch sells out to InBev for $52 billion. Bud Light suddenly tastes so much better now that it’s a product of Belgium.
• Down goes Miss USA!
• I go on vacation for one week and the baseball team goes completely to shit.
• Speaking of baseball: Home Run Derby tonight!

Rep. CW Bill Young’s 38-year tenure in the Congressional District 10 seat centered in St. Petersburg will be a tough one to follow. That is if he ever retires or, even more unlikely, gets kicked out of office.

Despite that, on Thursday night three Democratic candidates vying for the chance to run against Young tried to persuade a room full of Pinellas Democrats that they could be the one to replace a career politician with a “citizen legislator.”

Grandmother and self-proclaimed “true patriot” Samm Simpson, Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth and millionaire Max Linn answered questions from the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club, which hosted the debate. Although the three are in line with one another on the length of Young’s term and most of the issues, they do have their differences. How to address the nation’s health care dilemma is one, for instance: Linn and Simpson support the single-payer plan, while Hackworth cited a lack of cooperation and said that he would “work across the aisle to fix a system riddled with inefficiency.”

The candidates also butted heads about the economy: Hackworth called for ending the war in Iraq and investing in the infrastructure, while Simpson somehow wandered from fundamental monetary reform to sending people to jail. Linn, who spoke last and proclaimed that neither of his opponents knew what they were talking about, called for reforming NAFTA  — “fair trade, not free trade,” he said — and implementing real estate incentives to get the market going again.

Hackworth, the only one of the three who has been elected to office before, said that it’s going to take bipartisan appeal to beat Young.  “It’s not about winning the room tonight. It’s about proving you can beat Bill Young,” Hackworth said. “That’s the point, and it isn’t going to be easy.”

Linn, who fought for more than a decade to establish term limits and ran for governor on the Reform Party ticket in 2006, said he is the only one who can realistically beat the incumbent. “I will squash Bill Young like a tomato,” he said.

Simpson refers to her campaign as a calling, not a career choice. She stayed late not to shake hands but to hug everyone who approached her, and her compassion seems to work, considering the number of people who came up to speak with her afterward. “I want my country back,” she said.

(Photos by Amelia Harnish)

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From the folks bringing us the November referendum on a strong county mayor in Hillsborough:

TAMPA – Mary Ann Stiles is proud to announce former Senator Les Miller and Councilwoman Gwen Miller have joined the efforts to give Hillsborough County an Elected County Mayor.

Senator Miller served in the historic capacity as the Minority Leader in the State House and the State Senate.  Councilwoman Miller has served on Tampa City Council since 1995 and was the Chair of the Council from 2004 to 2008.

This distinguished, accomplished and respected couple will both serve on the Executive Committee of the Elected County Mayor Political Committee, Inc.   Mr. Miller has also joined the Speakers Bureau and is available to speak to community organizations on behalf of the Elected County Mayor effort.

Ms. Stiles commented “We are so honored to have these two distinguished individuals join our campaign team.   Both have served this community in so many capacities and are so well respected it will be a privilege to work with them.   I believe their commitment to our cause brings another element of validity to the fact that Hillsborough County needs an Elected County Mayor.”

It doesn’t mean he will be walking the streets anytime soon, but Sami al-Arian is a bit closer to some justice and freedom after a court ruling today. This from former CAIR local executive director Ahmed Bedier:

JUDGE ORDERS DR. AL-ARIAN RELEASED ON BAIL PENDING TRIAL
By Attorney Johnathan Turley

In a set back for the government, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was granted bail by Judge Leonie M. Brinkema today. Over the objections of the government and the pre-trial services, Judge Brinkema agreed that Dr. Al-Arian was not a flight risk and no danger to the community.

The government has suggested that it may now block release by having Immigration officials hold Dr. Al-Arian for deportation – despite the fact that it is trying to hold him for years under a criminal sentence rather than deport him.

SOURCE CLICK HERE
http://jonathanturley.org/2008/07/09/dr-sami-al-arian-files-motion-for-bail/

============

AL-ARIAN IN DEPORTATION HOLD AFTER RELEASE FOR CONTEMPT

By JOSH GERSTEIN, Sun | July 10, 2008
A federal judge is ordering a prominent Palestinian Arab activist, Sami Al-Arian, released pending a trial on criminal contempt charges, but she has refused to block immigration authorities from detaining Al-Arian as a prelude to his deportation.
The upshot of the ruling from Judge Leonie Brinkema at a bail hearing at Alexandria, Va. this morning seemed to be that Al-Arian will stay behind bars, at least for now. However, the decision puts the government in the odd posture of detaining a man for a deportation authorities have no immediate intention of carrying out.

“It was a very good day,” one of Al-Arian’s lawyers, Jonathan Turley, said in a brief telephone interview after the court session. “She agreed with us that he’s not a flight risk and not a danger to the community, that that was not a barrier to bail.”
Mr. Turley said Judge Brinkema also said she was picking up “strange signals” from the case and she warned the government that it should not be using the contempt charges to delay Al-Arian’s deportation.

The prosecutor at today’s hearing, Gordon Kromberg, declined to comment for this article.
FULL ARTICLE HERE

http://www.nysun.com/national/al-arian-in-deportation-hold-after-release/81624/

Getting ready to be hitched has done very little to endear Charlie Crist to conservatives. Today’s thumping comes courtesy of the Washington Times. In an op-ed, Burnie Thompson writes of Crist:

Mr. McCain would be hard pressed to make a worse choice.

True, Mr. McCain won Florida’s primary on the wave of Mr. Crist’s late endorsement, which Mr. McCain rode to shore as the Republican presidential candidate. The Florida governor is especially popular in the state’s liberal precincts, and he likely would deliver the Sunshine State in November.

But this would spell victory for big-government Republicanism, and a definitive departure from the virtues of small government and personal responsibility. Mr. Crist and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are the bookend faces of the new Republican Party. Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater’s pictures on the grand old mantle have been turned to the wall.

Mr. Crist is the RINO poster boy. He’s a Republican in name only. He’s as politically calculating as the Clintons, and equally enamored of power. That explains why he’s been flying around the country on the Arizona senator’s left wing, vying for the vice presidency as his state’s economy sinks.

The Barack Obama campaign has turned to some Florida political veterans as it staffs up in Florida, including a Florida Democratic Party spokesman and the former federal point person for rebuilding efforts in Midtown in St. Petersburg.

The campaign said Mark Bubriskie will be leaving the Democratic Party post he held in Tallahassee to be Obama’s Florida communications director. Stephanie Owens, the former fed-in-Midtown and a veteran of Bill Clinton’s campaigns, will serve as political director. Owens was also the community relations point person for the 2001 Super Bowl, a job she was reprising for the 2009 game.

The full appointment slate after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

“You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see. You hang around cafés:”

• A man uniquely suited to a life in politics: lies, lies and more lies.
• Former Gator baller Dupay charged with rape.
• Skip’s out; wait, he’s in.
• CBS says the Democratic convention is “non-news.”
• PoHo says the Democratic and Republican conventions are non-news.
• Hymietown, Part II
• Operation Chaos.
• McCain channels Thatcher.
• Stripping in economic decline.
• It’s official: USF is the last agency in the world to consider going green.
• Kate’s back!
• And now real estate agents want to be citizen journalists, too.

For the completists out there, here are more photos from the Democratic County Commission debate at the East Hillsborough Democratic Club last night in Brandon. The candidates included Joe Redner, Denise Layne and Kevin Becker. There’s also a shot of club President Don Moffett:

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Damn you Joe Bardi and your evil vacations. Here’s another day of PoHo-substituting Short List, and you better believe I am taking it out on Joe’s ass when he returns. For now, here’s der Mittster during his on-air Veep tryout last night on H&C:

• Our Urban Explorer is not dead, contrary to the rumors.
• “So, Sasha, can you tell us your take on the FISA extension and whether giving the telecomms immunity makes sense in the Global War on Terrorism?”
• Ventura vs. Franken?
• “Skip? Skiiiii-iiip??Anyone seen Skip?”
• Now there’s “refrigerator journalism.”
• “Anybody moves and Pluto gets one in the haunches.”
• Debunking the pet vote myth.
• “Big … girls … don’t … smoke. Bii-iig girls, they don’t smo-oo-ooke (they don’t smoke).”

Cong. 10 Democratic candidate Bob Hackworths’ campaign sent along this statement as the Senate prepares to vote in the reauthorization of the FISA domestic spying bill:

DUNEDIN, FL—With the Senate poised to vote today on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); Mayor Hackworth has taken a stand against this unwarranted infringement on our civil liberties.  Americans who contact people outside this country will have their calls and emails collected without the use of warrants. Another provision of this act allows telecom companies that have illegally wiretapped Americans in the past will not be held accountable for their illegal actions.
“Once again this administration has shown its disregard for the Constitution,” said Mayor Hackworth.   “By providing the telecom companies with immunity, the senate will be condoning the extra-constitutional actions of this government and be sending a message to the country and the world that big business comes before the freedoms and liberties of the American people.  As usual, Rep. Bill Young sided with the administration in voting to restrict the freedoms that this country was founded on,” said Hackworth.
When H.R. 6304 passed in the House, Democrats were split down the middle as 128 voted against and 105 voted in favor of it.  When elected to Congress, Mayor Hackworth will work to restore the constitutional liberties the founders intended.

As I wrote in our print edition of CL last week, removing Republican Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair should be the top priority of progressives throughout Tampa Bay. Blair, who led the fight to curtail wetlands protections, is best known for his criticism of the school “Day of Silence” as a gay-recruitment plot of some kind. And last night in Brandon, the three Democrats who hope to face him in November faced off in a mild debate that focused more on style differences than competing stances on issues.

Growth management activist and Tallahassee lobbyist Denise Layne, smart growth advocate Joe Redner and financial planner and former cop Kevin Beckner all fielded questions from the East Hillsborough Democratic Club, one of the fastest rising and most dynamic of the Democratic groups trying to make Hillsborough blue again. 

The trio appeared to differ on the issues in only a few instances: Redner, for instance, strongly supports Florida Hometown Democracy and has donated tens of thousands to it, while Layne and Beckner support the concept of more citizen involvement in land-use decisions but have either questions or concerns about the specifics of the Hometown Democracy direct-referendum method of planning.

Here is a video of all three answering a question about their priority for mass transit:

Oh, and for those media junkies, there was no other media representative in sight. My, how things have changed in four years, from the days when local races actually got coverage.

 (photos & video by Wayne Garcia)

Ahhhh, the editing process. Good to know that Jefferson must have felt like most reporters do every Friday when their weekenders get picked apart:

• Mayor Rick Baker’s BFF is hanging up his quill.
• Ringo’s 68; birthday party marred only slightly when he and wife, Barbara Bach, had to be reminded repeatedly who they are.
• How far should journalism take outsourcing?
• The ethics of re-using online video.
• Journalism is doing a lousy job of reporting on real life; now we have to worry about faux life?
• The GOP is owning the Dems on the campaign message of energy. Doesn’t mean Republicans are right, just owning.
• Her mom and dad are mired in a nasty divorce; her bro is in jail; and this ditzy wannabe thinks that another “reality” TV series is the answer?
• Jesse: to slag or not to slag …
• The SPT empire expands … to pick up more oldsters?!?
• Yes, it is worth it to get a Prius instead of a gas-efficient beater.

Two weeks ago, in our (Openly) Gay Issue, we interviewed county commission candidates Darden Rice and Kevin Beckner. I wrote about Beckner’s Democratic primary competition but failed to mention that Rice has opposition, as well: former St. Pete City Councilwoman Rene Flowers.

Here’s Flowers’ campaign brochure, for those who haven’t had a chance to pick one up yet. (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format)

I’m slotted for a 9:30 call-in with political talker Scott Farrell on his 1040 AM show this evening. The topic: My cover story interview with the ever-cautious and methodical Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.

Since I last wrote about the effort to unseat Gus Bilirakis in a June profile of Democrat John Dicks, two more events have given him a bit more of a shot at this unlikely pickup.

First, late in June, the DCCC designated Dicks’ race as one of 20 Emerging Races in the nation on its watch list.

Now comes news that a nonpartisan, independent analysis has moved the race a bit away from the “sure thing for Republicans” column. The Cook Report changed its rating on Congressional 9 from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican.” It was one of four in the state to get the same treatment. No doubt that Obama’s strategy of turning out black votes and other top-of-the-ticket benefits are driving this, but of course, getting exposure in PoHo is golden, too.

The Host Committee for the Republican National Convention sent along a little howdy-do package this morning, including a brochure pimping the event and Minneapolis and a small bag of salted peanuts with the comical tag attached, “Please don’t feed the elephants.”

Mid-afternoon munchies being what they are, I ate some of the nuts, prompting our director of first impressions Gabe to quip that he would never “put GOP nuts in his mouth.”

I told him that after nearly 9 years of running political campaigns, including many Republican efforts, it wasn’t my first time.

From the newly reorganized caucus (note that the group comprised just 10 people) comes this news release:

July 1st, 2008 (Tampa, Florida)–On June 28, 2008, ten Hispanic Democrats came together on a Saturday morning to reorganize the Hillsborough Chapter of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida (HCDHCF). Elections were held and the following officers were elected:

President: Gilberto “Gil” Sanchez
Vice President: Daniel Suarez
Secretary: James Lascano
Treasurer: Paul Palacios

Gilberto “Gil” Sanchez, business attorney and business broker, was elected to lead the organization. Daniel Suarez, who also ran for State House against Florida House Representative Ambler, is the organizations Vice President. James Lascano, Secretary, and Paul Palacios, Treasurer, are active community leaders serving on various Non Profit Boards.

Attorney Sanchez has a vision of utilizing HCDHCF to bridge the needs of the Hispanic community on a grassroots level with local, state and national government. “The single biggest need within the Hispanic community is the lack of access to information that could otherwise assist them in providing solutions to their needs” says Attorney Sanchez. Specifically, HCDHCF will be organizing bilingual conferences and informational sessions that feature public officials, public administrators and professionals in the areas of law, banking, insurance, health and housing that will be free to the public. Attorney Sanchez is confident that by bridging this gap, the Hispanic community will see the Democratic Party as the party that aggressively seeks and supports the Hispanic community.

As the November election approaches, HCDHCF will also concentrate its efforts on registering Hispanic voters, promoting the use of absentee ballots and campaigning for local, state and national Democratic candidates. Transnational Relations, LLC will be serving as the pro bono public relations firm for HCDHCF.

We hadn’t heard much from Ralph Hughes recently, not since he built a $4 million home off Tampa’s Westshore Boulevard and moved in. Ralph had been so quiet — none of his trademark letters or e-mails in the past few years — that you almost forgot what a force he remained in Hillsborough County politics. It seemed like he was laying low or just enjoying life, having made millions and millions of dollars, first in concrete and more recently in buying up ailing alt-fuel and med-tech companies.

So when he died last week when I was away (I read his obit online on my laptop in a hotel in Chapel Hill, N.C.), I was pretty shocked. For the conservative movement in Hillsborough County, his death is a great loss. Combine that with fellow GOP strategist Sam Rashid’s self-proclaimed withdraw from the political stage due to disappointment with politics and you have a Hillsborough Republican Party that has lost much of the team that brought it to power in the 1990s.

I reported on Ralph at two different newspapers (including this one). I found myself working on political campaigns with him and against him during my tenure as a political consultant. Ralph was shrewd in a street-smart way; his issue was impact fees and lower taxes and opening government to more voices. He believed the community would prosper if only taxes and fees fell. (Of course, you would expect that pro-growth attitude from somebody who made his fortune selling pre-cast concrete used in constructing new commercial and residential buildings.)

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PoHo’s back from a tour of southeastern colleges, and Bardi takes a week off, so here’s the Short List a la Garcia, with Christopher Hitchens performing an homage to our favorite urban exploring writer, Alex Pickett:

• Will My Chemical Romance be opening for Obama on his stadium tour?
• The nearly permanent interim chief of the in-between-buildings Tampa Museum of Art finally steps down, on Wednesday.
• Shazam! A-Rod get’s Shaq’s divorce lawyer.
• Obama gets the Red Staters.
• Hard to believe der Mittster could piss anyone off, let alone someone as easygoing as McCain!
• LATimes down 250 jobs and 15% of its print space.
• The NYT-Fox News pissing match spills onto the pages of the Old Gray Lady.
• Norah O’Donnell has a baby girl. We have no idea why we should give a shit.
• Jackass’s Steve-O checks into a Rubber Room.
• TMZ: Who would you rather – Nadal or Federer?